New postoperative depressive symptoms and long-term cardiac outcomes after coronary artery bypass surgery

The authors evaluated the impact of an increase in depressive symptoms at 6 months after elective coronary, artery, bypass graft surgery, on long-term cardiac morbidity, and mortality between 6 and 36 months postoperatively. Patients who had low scores for depressive symptomatology pre-operatively, and who completed follow-up at 6 months were contacted again 36 months after surgery, to assess cardiac and neurologic morbidity, and mortality At 36 months after surgery an interval history, was completed, and baseline questionnaires were readministered. Follow-up was obtained on 123/124 patients (99%). The rate of combined new, cardiac morbidity/mortality between 6 and 3 6 months was 13.6% among those with newly increased depressive symptoms at 6 months vs. 3.0% in the patients without new, depressive symptoms at 6 months. Only an increase in depressive symptoms at 6 months was related to the occurrence of subsequent cardiac complications between 6 and 36 months. In this small sample of patients, increased depressive symptoms at 6 months after surgery appear to be associated with the occurrence of subsequent major cardiac morbidity/mortality.